Local volunteers train service dogs for veterans

Photo courtesy of David Burry
From left is David Burry, Brooke and Ashley O’Hara. Burry and O’Hara are local volunteers with the paws4people organization, a national nonprofit organization that has several canine partnership programs but specializes in providing services dogs to veterans with PTSD and children with disabilities.

April Cook came home from combat in Iraq with post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury and military sexual trauma. She was on more than 20 different medications and couldn’t go out in public alone.

“I would basically run into the nearest convenient store and back out,” and would pick up a bag of chips and “a six pack.” she said. “I wouldn’t even enter a grocery store.”

In 2011, a few years after Cook had come home, paws4people permanently placed her with a service dog, Claire, and David Burry, of Pocopson, taught the pair how to work together.

At the time, Cook was living in Maryland and Burry would meet her halfway.

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“Working with David kind helped me learn how to work with guys again,” which was “huge” for Cook since she suffers from military sexual trauma. “David was an incredible trainer a really great guy.”

Burry is local volunteer for paws4people, a national nonprofit organization that has several canine partnership programs but specializes in providing services dogs to veterans with PTSD and children with disabilities.

“The most rewarding thing that I’ve ever done is be able to work with them, teach them what the dog can do for them and watch that companionship grow,” said Burry.

Paws4vets is the organization’s program that places veterans with a permanent service dog. Most of the dogs are taught the basic commands by inmates through the paws4prisons program.

“These dogs are trained their set commands in prison by inmates and then they come out to volunteers like us, we do the public access training,” said Burry.

Public access training is taking the dog out to restaurants, malls and other public places to get them acclimated to the environment. After that volunteers will work with the dog and client for several months, as Burry did with Cook.

“It’s important for us to train them, the owners, what we are doing with their dogs and why it works,” said Ashley O’Hara, of Brookhaven in Delaware County, who is Burry’s daughter and another paws4people volunteer.

Volunteers go through a two-year program to become a fully certified service dog trainer. Burry has been a volunteer for about eight years, and O’Hara has finished her training and will start work in July.

Once accepted into the paws4vets program a group of clients will be put in a room with a group of dogs and they pair up. In Burry’s experience, the dogs take a special liking to a particular person.

“The dogs actually choose the person they are going to be permanently placed with,” said Burry. “They’re not permanently placed with that person at that time. They need to go through a lot more training, but we know ahead of time, sometimes a year in advance.”

Then the paws4people volunteers tailor each dog’s training to the client.

“Meaning if someone has a specific disability, if they are in a wheelchair, we can teach the dog wheelchair commands,” said O’Hara, which will help with mobility issues.

Paws4vets can’t afford to provide every applicant with a service dog, so the organization started opening Paws Training Centers. Burry and O’Hara run the local chapter.

Paws Training Centers offers dog training services for anyone that wants it. It is a for-profit company but all of the net proceeds go back to paws4people.

“It’s a way for people to indirectly help paws4people,” said O’Hara. “We do basic dog obedience, behavior modification, therapy dog training, service dog training.”

Cook said that Claire has made a huge difference in her life.

“It’s been absolutely life changing,” said Cook. “If I’m having nightmares or really bad dreams, she’ll jump on me, lick my face,” or even push her off the bed. “She pretty much does whatever it takes to stop that nightmare.”

And Cook can go out in public. Claire will pick up on her anxiety and nudge her before Cook even realizes its escalading. Claire’s companionship is comforting to Cook, even when she is just sitting with Claire.

“Some of us with PTSD, it grounds us, reminds us you’re here, you’re in a safe place,” said Cook.